After HGTV show cancellation, twins warn of censorship

cna ^ | May 10, 2014

[moovova]

Tap dancing ain’t good. They’re either for it or agin’ it.

[CAluvdubya]

I’ve done a search several times. One brother is engaged (I know, not proof but encouraging). Just listening to their banter on the show, there is no indication they are not hetero. They are actors, though. They started in real estate and flipping houses in college to make money. They’re pretty ambitious so I’m gonna give them credit for being hard working and good work ethic.

[cloudmountain]

Differences in culture are so fascinating. The custom for someone invited to dinner at another’s home in Denmark, is also subject to protocol. If the invitation reads 7 pm, the custom is to arrive early and wait outside until 7 pm before ringing the bell. One must never be late, either. How long were you in Saudi Arabia?

In Mexico one always arrives at least an hour late.

In Pakistan (my Paki friends told me) one gets there at least THREE HOURS late.

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KSA: My husband and I lived and worked in the KSA for five long years. We got to travel, well, everywhere, especially to those places we KNEW we would never see from here: Jordan, the Emirates, Yemen, Syria, Turkey. etc.
-- We traveled over as much of the Kingdom as we could. They have almost nothing pretty. The "native" clothes are nothing. They DO have a PINK quartz called "rose quartz" and it's quite pretty. That is it for pretty.
-- They have CAMEL SPIDERS. They jump. One jumped out of my hall closet over there. It bit my left hand. I had to go to the CLINIC as fast as I could. Those spiders kill children and old people and can make adults VERY, VERY ill. NAAAAaaaaassssssty!
-- Their well water is brackish and warm. So, anytime I see the old movies about the "beautiful desert oases" I have to remember that the Saudi oases were horrible. Yuck.
-- We American women did not have to wear a veil, but we were instructed to dress "circumspectly"--that is, nothing too tight, too low, too short or see through.
WHY cause trouble? We were over there for ONE purpose and one purpose only: money.
NATURALLY there were some Americans who HAD to test the rules.
**If they had anything to do with making, buying or selling booze, they were sent home.
**If they had anything to do with drugs, in ANY way, shape or form, the wives were sent home and the husbands were sent to Saudi prison--NOT a nice place to be.
Stupids WILL be that way. They aren't uneducated, just arrogant. It costs over there.

Turkey: We saw "Mary's house" at Ephesus, ONCE a working port. The land has changed so much since then that it's now MILES inland.
It was nice to see that the Turks allowed Christians to care for her house...a modest, stone, one-room house, with an opening for a "window."
Side note: The Christians who took care of it were midwest evangelicals, of all things.

Syria:
We were in Syria when daddy Assad was in power. Fruit doesn't fall too far from the tree. I LOVED Damascus. I "discovered" what DAMASK was and that they all sold it...so I bought DAMASK tablecloths and matching napkins, all cotton with beautiful embroidery IN DAMASCUS. What a thrill.
They were indestructible, SO well made. The cotton was from Egypt. Apparently the Egyptians make some of the best cotton in the world over there. Whooda thunk?

When folks here vent on and on about Syria I can only remember how MUCH I loved it! WHAT a fabulous city.
It BECAME so important, you know, because it was/is a city with TWO deep, deep HUGE water wells/reserves. That was a big deal back then. There always has to be a GOOD reason why villages become towns, then cities. Damascus hit the nail on the head.

There were CRUSADER ruins there!! I had all but forgotten about them when I was there. IMAGINE, real, live, honest-to-goodness CRUSADER ruins. I had to come home and look them up again.

For all this site vents about the middle and near east, they are still absolutely fabulous places to visit.
Yes, they are run by jerks. What else is new?
Yes, it's a PAIN in the wazoo dealing with those bureaucracies and occasional rude people. What else is new?
We have the same KINDS of aholes and jerks here. There is NO race, age, gender, creed or nationality to the word "jerk." It's a WONDERFUL catch-all work for some people. God DID make them and it takes me some strength of mind to remember that. :o)

I decided that no amount of jerks was going to keep us from visiting those monumentally important historical sites. They are SO fantastic that it is well worth the effort to SEE those places of antiquity.

ILLNESS: I got sick in Syria. It was MY fault. The silk merchant in Damascus offered me a cup of hot tea to drink.
My husband said NO but, the tea was hot, so I thought it would be okay. Anyway, who listens to husbands? I know it all, so why consult him? He was ONLY six years older, far more educated that I was, had several other jobs and much more experienced.
He had even been a prison guard at San Quentin State Prison for six months when he was 25.
Anyway, after a while I went to their toilet..."hammam." THAT is where they washed their cups.
Lol. I told my husband that I needed a place REAL SOON where I could die in peace. A Syrian doctor came to my hotel room, gave me some pills and I was well within hours. AAHHHH. God bless doctors.
MY HUSBAND had to take the pills too because this strain of nasty was SEXUALLY transmittable. I had never heard of sexually transmitted stomach viruses!! ONLY in the middle east.
Every third world has this problem. In Mexico we called it the "Aztec two-step." :o) WOW, I was sick. Their bad water isn't any better or worse than any other place on this planet Earth!!

I realized then that if a child survived to adulthood over there in the middle east, NOTHING short of a silver bullet could kill him.

Israel:
Why wouldn't I WANT to visit where our Lord Jesus lived, taught, suffered and died? It added SUCH richness to my life.
I laid my rosary down on Jesus' tomb for the time we were there. I still tear up and get choked up JUST remembering it.
We were there LATER after we came home. I went back (Husband had passed.) and went on a STEVE RAY (former evangelical Baptist minister who converted in his effort to change Catholics to Baptists) tour. Being a former Baptist, Steve knew his Bible backwards and forwards and we got chapter and verse in EVERY spot of Jesus' footsteps. That's what the tour is called.

Our guide in Israel was a Palestinian Arab Catholic. Huh? What?
Israel is MUST-SEE for every human who calls himself a Christian!

Egypt
We loved the Egyptian people and Egypt so much we went there TWICE. WHAT a fabulous place!!!

We went there once with my mother. She had come over at Christmas. My sister had passed quite suddenly and it was no place for her to be with her first Christmas without her firstborn daughter.
We spend Christmas in Cairo. The Egyptians had an Egyptian Santa...what a hoot: "Eid milaad saeed" -- happy holicays in Arabic. He was thin and brown but we didn't care.
Midnight Mass: my husband stayed at the hotel and watched "Miracle on 34th Street" and my mother and I went to midnight Mass. The priest used several languages during Mass, noticed us and the "Our Father" was in English.
I was worried about getting a taxi after Mass. It was after 2:00 A.M. Our Arab cab driver who took us there HAD waited for us! Our Lord meant us to have a wonderful Egyptian Christmas!

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People here CAN visit THERE. It just takes the will to save pennies, get lots and lots and lots of nasty shots, get the passport get lots and lots and lots of nasty shots, get the visas get lots and lots and lots of nasty shots, buy the tickets on plastic get lots and lots and lots of nasty shots, get a dog sitter get lots and lots and lots of nasty shots and get on the planes get lots and lots and lots of nasty shots.

And NO, you CAN'T wait until there is "peace" over there because it AIN'T gonna happen until the very last day of human existence when our good God says to the Arabs and Israelis (Jewish and Arab Israelis alike): THAT'S IT. Game is over!!

THEN, and only them, not a SECOND earlier, will the Arabs and Jews stop fighting over the Holy Land.

.

.

No more shots in Heaven. :o)

[cloudmountain]

1. It takes more than that to offend me. I am not a cry baby liberal who wets their pants whenever someone disagrees with me. Conservatives can discuss. Liberals are as closed minded as they make us out to be.
2. And you made great points.
3. But as for this country being a craphole, compared to what it was like 25 years ago, we are headed towards 3rd status.

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1. Thanks. One HAS to develop a thick skin here or run away crying the first bad post!
I DID leave the FR some years ago because I did get tired of all the bellyaching. I recently returned. Nothing has changed...except me.

2. Thanks.

3. Sad, but true. We need a president who tries to lead us down a better path...not the fool moron idiot person there now.

[NYer]

What a fascinating experience you have had. Many of our parishioners are from Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. They cherish their christian heritage and their children are raised in a home where icons, l coffee table sized rosaries and prayer are an integral part of their life.

We loved the Egyptian people and Egypt so much we went there TWICE. WHAT a fabulous place!!!

Several years ago, I purchased this book as a Lenten read. It grabbed me from the first page and I have read and re-read it many times. Have also shared it with our Orthodox friends and thy also have shared it with their friends. If you have not yet read this book, order it today!!

The reviews are all good; here is one, for example:

When enjoying this page-turner, the reader has to remind themselves from time to time that they are reading a non-fiction account. Father Mark's journey,which he unselfishly invites us to participate, is enthralling. The sights, sounds and personalities of the monastic subculture he describes are unknown to most of us, but are truly worthy of exploration. What begins as an academic pursuit evolves into a mission, sanctified in the most austere and remote corners of the Egyptian desert. Yet, the intensely sacrificial life of the desert monks, does not subjucate the reader. Instead, Father Mark's account brings to life the divine richness of their existance. To delight in this gem of a book, one does not need to be deeply religious. However, it is hard to imagine that a reader could participate in this expedition with Father Mark without being transformed spiritually, as he was.

Journey Back to Eden: My Life and Times Among the Desert Fathers

You will truly enjoy it.

[cloudmountain]

Thanks!

[ecomcon]

This country, the way that it is now, our culture today, is orders of magnitude more corrupt, sinful, rebellious and self satisfied than even 100 years ago. All the sins are the same, but the participation rate climbs ever higher as the vices become virtues, one by one.

We aren't lost? Seriously?

Why get all lathered up for something we can't change?

Who says we can't change? The people can fall into sin, and their country be destroyed, but it doesn't go the other way also? They can't repent? I say it works both ways, brother, because we are commanded to go and sin no more. That is change. Real change. We are not fated or doomed. We have a responsibility to obey. If we obey and do that which is pleasing to God, we change everything.

Our good Lord will provide (He always does.) because He made us and loves us.

The Lord will provide what we need. Not what we want. Do you presume to know what you need?

All we have to worry about is our own souls...and those souls nearest and dearest to us. This earthly life is comprised of SECONDS compared to "eternity." THAT is the time frame to worry about when thinking of our souls.

Why get our shorts/panties ALL bunched up for something HERE and NOW when it's all moot for us? WHY get all lathered up for something we can't change?

Would you say such things to Paul, or Peter, or any of the other Apostles and martyrs? No, we are not meaningless, or common, or unprofitable, or without distinction, unless we make it so by our disobedience.

[cloudmountain]

1. If we are lost, then what do we do? Sit back and wait to die? What do you suggest we do? Also, if you think WE are so special in the human race that OUR culture is somehow worse than others have been, then you know nothing of human nature or human history.

3. You misquoted me, no surprise. I DIDN'T say that "we can't change"; I wrote ..."something we can't change." APPARENTLY you have problems with reading or comprehension, or both.

3. As for "presuming" that I know what I need...are YOU presuming that I don't know what I need? Who are YOU to tell me that?

4. I am not "brother." I am "sister." I guess you ASSUMED. Wrong YET again. Why assume at all? Lol. It shows such arrogance.

5. Peter and Paul: Lol. This one actually amused me but I am too bored writing to you to explain.

Why not just STOP communicating? You won't, of course, but will rail at me with more blather. You need me I guess.

[mountainbunny]

No sympathy whatsoever. These two doth protest too much. Nothing about this could possibly be surprising to either of them.

They counted on Hollywood and the entertainment industry to reward them with fame and cash for their presence on a TV show. I'm sure they had book and endorsement deals dancing in their heads as well.

They were fine and dandy going along with the rotten-from-top-to-bottom system as long as it all went their way. Now that it isn't, they're shocked? They wanted to be involved in a corrupt industry that buys and sells personality based on the lowest common denominator, and claim that they're hurt to find that it is corrupt? Yeah, I don't think so.

Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas. What is difficult to understand about that?